Team Sky 2012 Season in Review

When Team Sky announced its five year goals the aim to have a British rider on the podium in France wearing yellow sounded fanciful. Forget five, Sky and Bradley Wiggins had a dream year in which they completely dominated the Tour de France and racked up stage win after stage win. Mark Cavendish joined the team to once again team up with Wiggins after they rode Madison together. His season on the team started well but tensions came to fore with Cav unhappy over his lack of support and a dedicated lead-out train. He still snared three Tour stages but in 2013 Sky will be GC focused not only in July but have the squad to challenge for GC wins in every race they enter.

Gold medal winners at the London Games in Cycling Events

Men’s Road Race: Alexander Vinokourov (Kazakhstan)
Women's Road Race: Marianne Vos (Netherlands)
Men’s Individual Time Trial: Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain)
Women’s Individual Time Trial: Kristin Armstrong (USA)
Men’s Team Sprint: Great Britain (Philip Hindes, Chris Jason Kenny)
Women’s Team Sprint: Germany (Kristina Vogel, Miriam Welte)
Women’s Keirin: Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain)
Men’s Team Pursuit: Great Britain (Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Steven Burke, Peter Kennaugh)
Women’s Team Pursuit: Great Britain (Danielle King, Laura Trott, Joanna Roswell)
Men's Omnium: Lasse Norman Hansen (Denmark)
Men's Individual Sprint: Jason Kenny (Great Britain) 
Women's Omnium: Laura Trott (Great Britain)
Men's Kerin: Chris Hoy (Great Britain) 
Women's Individual Sprint: Anna Meares (Australia)

Vino wins Gold: Men's Olympic Road Race

Alexander Vinokourov wins the gold medal race and announces his retirement. Vino now has a silver medal from Sydney 2000 and gold from London in Olympic road races. He can also add two bronze medals from the 2004 and 2006 worlds in the ITT to his Olympic medals. After his positive doping test at the 2007 Tour de France, Vinos reputation has been tainted by this indiscretion and as well as being accused of buying his 2010 Liège–Bastogne–Liège win , Vino's win was not to everyone’s flavour.

Starting List for 2012 London Olympics Road Race-Men

1 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spain)
2 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spain)
3 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spain)
4 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spain)
5 Francisco Jose Ventoso Alberdi (Spain)
6 Sacha Modolo (Italy)
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Italy)
8 Luca Paolini (Italy)
9 Marco Pinotti (Italy)
10 Elia Viviani (Italy)

Gold Medallists in the Olympic Individual Time Trial-Women

1996: Zulfiya Zabirova (Russia)
2000: Leontien van Moorsel (Netherlands)
2004: Leontien van Moorsel (Netherlands)
2008: Kristin Armstrong (USA)
2012: Kristin Armstrong (USA) 

Gold Medallists in the Olympic Road Race-Women

1984: Connie Carpenter (USA)
1988: Monique Knol (Netherlands)
1992: Kathy Watt (Australia)
1996: Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (France)
2000: Leontien Zijlaard (Netherlands)
2004: Sara Carrigan (Australia)
2008: Nicole Cooke (Great Britain)
2012: Marianne Vos (Netherlands

2012 London Olympics Road Course

(C) London Olympics

Gold Medallists in the Olympic Individual Time Trial

1996: Miguel Indurain (Spain) 5x Tour winner, 2x Giro winner, ITT World Champion
2000: Viatcheslav Vladimirovich Ekimov (Russia)
2004: Tyler Hamilton (USA)
2008: Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) 4x ITT World Champion
2012: Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 

Gold Medallists in the Olympic Road Race

1896: Aristidis Konstantinidis (Greece)
1912: Rudolph "Okey" Lewis (South Africa)
1920: Erik Harry Stenqvist (Sweden)
1924: Armand Blanchonnet (France)
1928: Henry Hansen (Denmark)
1932: Attilio Pavesi (Italy)
1936: Robert Charpentier (France)
1948: José Beyaert (France)
1952: André Noelle (Belgium)
1956: Ercole Baldini (Italy) Giro GC winner, World Champion
1960: Viktor Arsenevich Kapitonov (USSR)
1964: Mario Zanin (Italy)
1968: Pierfranco Vianelli (Italy)
1972: Hennie Kuiper (Netherlands) World Champion
1976: Bernt Harry Johansson (Sweden)
1980: Sergei Nikolaevich Sukhoruchenkov (USSR)
1984: Alexi Singh Grewal (USA)
1988: Olaf Ludwig (Germany)
1992: Fabio Casartelli (Italy)
1996: Pascal Richard (Switzerland)
2000: Jan Ulrich (Germany) Tour and Vuelta GC winner
2004: Paolo Bettini (Italy) 2x World Champion
2008: Samuel Sánchez González (Spain)

2012: Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan)

Why Support Wiggo?

Bradley Wiggins is on the cusp of an unprecedented achievement in the world of cycling. Wiggins is a proven multiple Olympic and world champion gold medal winning cyclist but in the last year has proven himself to be a Grand Tour GC contender. His third placing at the 2011 Vuelta de España was a sign of what Wiggins is capable of as well as a validation of fourth place in the 2009 Tour. After crashing out during Stage Seven of last year’s Tour with a broken collarbone, Wiggins has been working hard on returning to the Tour and taking home yellow. 2012 appears to to be year of the self confessed mod whose Tour it is to lose.